Like this:

Initially, this site started as a light-hearted attempt to illustrate personal frustrations I had with the CREC as well as ones that I had been exposed to in conversation with people with similar experiences.

I have seen many, many sites attacking Christ Church, Doug Wilson, and the CREC. Those sites have researched the facts surrounding the various abuses, and have generally presented them in a readable light. Creating memes allowed me to bind a stupid image to words or abuses that were not as immediately recognizable as ridiculous.

I did not make up anything in the “I shit you not” category on this site. It’s all true.

I found that I was deliberately reading things that made me angry, finding injustices or abuses that I couldn’t do anything about. Dwelling on the injustice becomes unhealthy after a while, in much the same way as ignoring it does. I do not advocate burying your head in the sand and maintaining that your lack of personal experience with abuse proves it non-existence. I also cannot advocate focusing your energy on fighting these abuses.

What I am saying is, “Do not be blind.”

The purpose of this site is not to destroy the CREC. There are many, many good people in the CREC. Some of those people are in positions of leadership. I am not even trying discourage people from joining the CREC.

Do not go in thinking that everything is OK, or worse yet, that there are some nebulous problems some people have that are not important. If you join, do it with your eyes open.

The CREC has some major problems, mostly in leadership.

On one side, you have the Wilsonian camp and most of the Greyfriars. They tend to focus on Biblical gender roles, prepackaged baptistic-style legalism, and church authority. These are the folks that will insist on head of household meetings, nepotism, classical christian education, and kicking hornets nests. They believe in power.

Wilson fans tend to believe in a God who shows His love by beating them, constantly reminding His people how absolute His power is. The abuses within the CREC are usually at the hands of Wilson or the Greyfriars he has trained with this attitude. Masculinity and “hard sermons” become the definition of the gospel of overwhelming free grace. The roles defined within this group are rigid and generally have little consideration for individuals. In this group, men tend to be authoritarian toward women, and church sessions tend to be secretive and authoritarian toward their churches.

This leads to all kinds of serious abuse, including sexual abuse and financial dishonesty. If you follow what happened, much can be traced to love of mammon. These roots run deep and I felt these situations were too serious to be illustrated by memes.

The other camp in the CREC tends to be more theologically complex, liturgically-minded, and passionate about things like paedo-faith, weekly communion, and being Catholic. They tend to be attracted to James Jordan and N.T. Wright, not Driscoll or Piper.

The second camp oftentimes perceives the abuses within the first camp, and to their credit, they do not follow the same path. Instead, they coexist with the jack-booted crowd or leave. I am not in any position to make any reforms in the CREC. There are many in this camp who are aware of the wrongs and simply ignore them because they want to preserve unity, because it is just too much trouble to stand up for what is right, because their livelihoods depend on perpetrating those very injustices, or because “so long as the gospel is preached, it doesn’t matter who is preaching.”

It does matter who is preaching. It does matter what they are doing behind the scenes. It does matter what happens to marriages and families as a result of these teachings. What they are preaching does have some gospel truth, but it is severely tainted. Dismissing and ignoring abuse by calling it gospel is a serious sin in itself.

And if you know what is happening, you have a responsibility to do something about it. I have known about the injustices going on in Moscow and its satellites for years and have felt powerless to do anything about it. This site was my way of exposing a few of the wrongs and trying to help people see what is really happening.

I know it is easier to look away. But problems will never be solved by looking away from them. However, for me personally, it is time for me to focus my energies elsewhere.

I will not be taking this site down. I am not removing any of the memes that I have published so far. You are free to comment on them, and certainly free to send your completed memes, concepts, or suggestions to crecmemes@gmail.com. I welcome your feedback, good or ill.As of now, there are 433 posts up and 485 comments. Since the site’s launch in June, it has received over 35,000 hits.